It is a headline discovering from a new survey of more than 180 business decision-makers, conducted by the We Mean Business Coalition (WMBC).
The survey took in companies from 27 nations and a spread of sectors together with heavy business, skilled companies, monetary companies and digital expertise.
It discovered that the majority companies (78%) not already buying carbon offsets, or planning to take action, wouldn’t take into account getting into the market. Their primary considerations arose from worries that tasks wouldn’t ship the carbon advantages promised, thus exposing them to reputational danger and the chance of lacking their commitments.
If the carbon credit score market was extra strictly regulated and had stronger requirements for greatest follow, nonetheless, half of non-participating firms would take into account getting into the offset market.
Furthermore, most firms already shopping for credit would enhance their spend. The analysis forecast a ten% whole enhance in spend amongst this cohort inside two years.
A number of organisations are working to develop and proliferate clear, constant offsetting frameworks for company carbon credit score purchasers and requirements to extend integrity for credit score producers and merchants. They embody the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) and the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, which last summer pledged to work collaboratively.
Impression on emissions ambitions
One other concern about carbon offsetting is that companies may buy offsets to keep away from truly decreasing their absolute emissions. However a previous WMBC-backed study discovered that firms collaborating in voluntary carbon markets are sometimes decreasing their emissions at a faster tempo than these not utilizing offsets.
Seven in ten of the companies already buying carbon credit, or with plans to take action, mentioned this feature enabled them to extend their climate-related investments and motion. Fewer than one in ten strongly disagreed that offset purchases can be counterproductive.
The survey additionally discovered that corporations collaborating in voluntary carbon markets are twice as prone to place an inside value on carbon than these which don’t.
A approach ahead
WMBC’s deputy director of nature-based options, Luke Pritchard, mentioned: “It’s clear there’s broad consensus amongst enterprise leaders that local weather motion is a strategic precedence and carbon markets are a necessary device for delivering on world net-zero objectives.
“But our survey showed that even more corporate climate finance could be unlocked by improving private sector confidence in carbon markets with robust frameworks that ensure greater integrity, transparency and recognition of companies going above and beyond.”
The report requires the swift supply of a finalised, end-to-end integrity framework for carbon credit. This was promised at COP28, the UN’s most up-to-date annual local weather summit, which concluded in December 2023 in Dubai.
Such a framework ought to embody “robust safeguards” to stop the company misuse of carbon credit to the detriment of real local weather motion.
Nations will even have to resolve on which our bodies must be chargeable for regulating the market and enacting enforcement.
Associated characteristic: Why 2024 is a make or break year for voluntary carbon markets
